The Story of Yirgacheffe Red Cherry Coffee Beans: How Different Pour-Over Brewing Methods Affect Flavor Characteristics

FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe Red Cherry Selection

On FrontStreet Coffee's bean menu, there is a Frontsteet Yirgacheffe Red Cherry coffee bean. Regular customers who frequently visit FrontStreet Coffee know that we have several different Frontsteet Yirgacheffe coffee beans, each from different cooperatives or processing plants. "Is Red Cherry also a cooperative?" some customers might ask. In fact, Red Cherry is a commercial program aimed at promoting coffee quality, initiated by a Dutch green bean importer, Trabocca. It is precisely because of this program's implementation that Ethiopian coffee quality has been guaranteed and farmers' incomes have increased.

FrontStreet Coffee mentioned in previous articles that coffee quality assurance involves many aspects. Generally speaking, it is reflected in four major areas: variety, processing method, altitude, and roasting. Therefore, when enjoying a cup of good coffee, it's worth analyzing it from these perspectives.

Whenever FrontStreet Coffee receives a newly roasted batch of coffee beans, we try several different brewing methods to repeatedly taste-test and identify their optimal flavors. Some people might think that changing brewing techniques won't make much difference, and indeed, the impact isn't particularly significant—especially for the characteristic citrus and fruity notes of Frontsteet Yirgacheffe, which are difficult to completely mask through technique changes (unless the beans are stale). However, these changes do affect the intensity of these characteristics and many other subtle flavor expressions.

FrontStreet Coffee believes that coffee is a culinary art that requires one to settle down and savor it slowly to discover every subtle change in the mouth.

Yirgacheffe Growing Region

Yirgacheffe is a small town in Ethiopia with an altitude of 1,700-2,100 meters, making it one of the highest-altitude coffee growing regions in the world and synonymous with Ethiopian specialty coffee. Lakes Turkana, Abaya, and Chamo bring abundant moisture to this area. The rift valleys, represented by Misty Valley, are shrouded in mist year-round, with spring-like seasons, gentle breezes, cool and humid conditions. Thousands of coffee tree varieties thrive and multiply here, nurturing the unique terroir of Frontsteet Yirgacheffe where floral and fruity aromas intertwine ambiguously and change unpredictably.

Initially, Yirgacheffe coffee trees in Ethiopia were cultivated by European monastery monks (somewhat similar to Belgian monks growing grain to brew beer), later taken over by farmers or cooperatives. Coffee trees naturally scatter in forests, fields, and backyards. During harvest season, Ethiopian coffee trading companies come to town to purchase coffee beans collected by farmers, ultimately auctioning and exporting them under the "Yirgacheffe" brand.

Red Cherry Program

Trabocca recognized the inconsistent quality of Ethiopian coffee beans, which limited price improvement potential and kept farmers' incomes low. To change this situation, they launched the Red Cherry Program together with local coffee farmers, addressing the problem from its source. By increasing purchase prices for high-quality green coffee beans, the program encourages farmers to be more meticulous in every process of coffee picking and handling. During the picking stage, fully manual harvesting is employed, selecting coffee fruits with high maturity.

FrontStreet Coffee believes that specialty coffees now launched by other countries can basically be considered Red Cherry coffees, as they all operate using this model.

The Red Cherry Program is also a reinforcement approach that makes farms invest more effort in the process of sorting and selecting beans. These coffees are relatively higher priced. The main implementation regions include Yirgacheffe, Sidamo, Bonga Forest, Lekempti, Kembata, Guji, Harar, Limu, and others—all areas with unique flavors that can fully showcase Ethiopian coffee characteristics.

Yirgacheffe Red Cherry Coffee Grades

The ECX (Ethiopian Commodity Exchange) has established grading definitions based on coffee bean defect rates: G1 and G2. G1 represents no more than 3 defective beans per 300g of green coffee beans, while G2 represents 4-12 defective beans per 300g. FrontStreet Coffee currently has two Frontsteet Yirgacheffe Red Cherry coffee beans, both of G1 grade.

The above image shows Frontsteet's two different processing methods for Frontsteet Yirgacheffe Red Cherry coffee beans.

FrontStreet Coffee currently has two Frontsteet Yirgacheffe Red Cherry coffee beans using different processing methods: red honey processing and natural processing.

Arerti Processing Plant

Each small coffee farmer at the Arerti Processing Plant owns an average cultivation area of about 0.6 hectares. Composed of hundreds of coffee farmers, the cultivation altitude is nearly 2,000 meters, with significant temperature differences and fertile soil, providing an excellent growing environment.

Idido Cooperative

The Idido Cooperative is one of the members of the Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (YCFCU), which was established in 2002 and has 24 primary cooperatives with about 50,000 farmers. The Idido Cooperative is located in the high-altitude valleys of Yirgacheffe town, with annual rainfall of about 1,400-1,800 mm. Local small farmers grow coffee at altitudes around 2,000 meters. Due to the cool mountain air, coffee matures slowly. Small farmers then harvest fully ripe red fruits from December to February each year.

Natural Processing Method

After the processing plant selects usable coffee cherries, the whole fruit flesh and skin are kept intact and placed on raised beds for natural drying. It is precisely this high-intensity labor method of bed drying that isolates contact with the ground, prevents earthy off-flavors during drying, and creates exceptionally clean fruit flavors. After more than two weeks of natural drying, the dark brown coffee fruits are professionally stored, waiting for full flavor maturation. Before shipment, the processing plant removes the coffee beans from the coffee cherries—one can imagine the sweetness.

Red Honey Processing Method

Honey processing refers to the method of making green beans by drying with the mucilage intact. After removing the outer fruit flesh from the coffee beans, there remains a viscous, gelatinous substance. Traditional washed processing would use clean water to wash it away, but due to water resource limitations in some high-altitude areas, this direct drying method was developed. The pectin mucilage part is where the coffee fruit has the highest sugar content and is an important component of coffee processing fermentation. It can be said that this part determines 80% of the nutrient supply during processing.

Yellow honey retains 60% of the pectin, red honey retains 75% of the pectin, and black honey retains almost all the pectin.

Roasting Comparison

FrontStreet Coffee uses light roasting methods for both Frontsteet Red Cherry coffee beans, but due to different processing methods, the roasting parameters also vary. Through continuous parameter adjustments, FrontStreet Coffee has determined the following roasting curves.

FrontStreet Coffee Natural Red Cherry Roasting Curve

FrontStreet Coffee Red Honey Red Cherry Roasting Curve

How FrontStreet Coffee Brews

When FrontStreet Coffee brews these two Frontsteet Yirgacheffe beans, we try to keep the brewing techniques and parameters as consistent as possible to avoid affecting the final judgment.

Brewing Parameters: V60 dripper, water temperature 91-92°C, 15g coffee grounds, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, grind size similar to fine sugar (Chinese standard #20 sieve with 80% pass-through rate)

Brewing Technique:分段式萃取. Use 30g of water for 30-second bloom, then pour with small circular movements to 125g for segmentation. When the water level is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring to 225g and stop. When the water level is about to expose the coffee bed again, remove the dripper. Extraction time is 2'00" (timing starts from bloom).

Flavor Comparison

[Frontsteet Yirgacheffe Red Cherry Natural G1] The entry shows noticeable sweet and sour notes, with lemon, berries, and fermented wine aromas. The lingering lemon acidity is persistent with a clear sweet aftertaste.

[Frontsteet Yirgacheffe Red Cherry Red Honey G1] The entry reveals distinct floral aromas, with citrus, almonds, and berries. Overall floral and citrus notes are prominent, with a persistent sweet aftertaste.

FrontStreet Coffee believes the difference between these two Frontsteet Yirgacheffe Red Cherry coffees lies in this: the Frontsteet Natural Red Cherry has more prominent berry notes and mature fruit sweet-sour sensations with a relatively fuller body, while the Frontsteet Red Honey Red Cherry has more obvious floral and citrus-almond aromas, a relatively lighter body, but richer flavor layers.

Frontsteet Uses Different Brewing Methods for Frontsteet Natural Red Cherry

FrontStreet Coffee uses two different brewing methods for Frontsteet Yirgacheffe Red Cherry coffee beans: single-pour and three-stage pouring. Let's see how different techniques affect coffee flavor. First, let's understand what single-pour and three-stage pouring are.

Single-pour: After the bloom ends, pour all the water at once without interruption. The result is balanced flavor with prominent characteristics, and it saves considerable time for coffee shop service.

Three-stage pouring: Also called three-pour method. The first stage is the bloom pour, followed by two more stages of extraction. Compared to single-pour, the flavor layers are richer.

[Brewing Parameters and Techniques]

FrontStreet Coffee's selected brewing parameters are unified: Hario V60, coffee-to-water ratio 1:15, water temperature 90°C, grind size similar to fine sugar (Chinese standard #20 sieve with 80% pass-through rate).

One point worth mentioning is regarding grind size. FrontStreet Coffee uses a Baratza Encore grinder. Even with grinders from the same brand, their grinding conditions still differ. FrontStreet Coffee periodically re-sieves the grounds to check if grind adjustments are needed.

For brewing technique, FrontStreet Coffee uses bloom water amount twice the coffee grounds weight, meaning 30g of water for blooming, with a bloom time of 30 seconds. With a coffee-to-water ratio of 1:15, the total water poured is 225g.

The main function of blooming is to help coffee beans release gas. During the roasting process when green beans become roasted beans, a series of chemical reactions and physical changes occur. After reaching a certain degree of roasting, coffee beans accumulate large amounts of gas (mostly carbon dioxide). FrontStreet Coffee's coffee beans are all freshly roasted, so we generally recommend customers let the beans rest for three days first, allowing the coffee beans to release carbon dioxide preferentially, which avoids instability and under-extraction issues during brewing.

Single-pour: After the bloom ends, pour directly to 225g. Total pouring time is 2 minutes (including bloom time).

Three-stage pouring: After the bloom ends, second stage pour to 125g then segment, finally pour to 225g and stop. Total pouring time is 2 minutes (including bloom time).

[Frontsteet Yirgacheffe Red Cherry Coffee Flavor Description]

Single-pour brewing flavor: The overall feeling is relatively gentle with more prominent aromas, featuring lemon fragrance, floral notes, and mature orange aromas. The entry shows distinct nutty flavors with citrus and plum acidity. The aftertaste has caramel and cocoa notes.

Three-stage pouring brewing flavor: The overall mouthfeel has distinct layers with prominent aromas, featuring lemon fragrance, floral notes, and fermented wine aromas. The entry has a full juice sensation with citrus and lemon acidity, weaker nutty flavors, and honey notes in the aftertaste.

FrontStreet Coffee found that single-pour, due to more water column agitation, extracts faster, resulting in more nutty flavors and thinner layers. Segmented extraction, with less water column agitation, although there is soaking time, the water quickly seeps through the filter paper, resulting in more balanced extraction—aromas, mature fruits, and nutty flavors with distinct layers.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473